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Pulsar Magnetospheres: Classical, Quasi-Classical and Quantum Descriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

A. A. da Costa*
Affiliation:
Centra de Electrodinâmica, Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001, Lisboa, Portugal(antonio_da_casta@ieee.org)

Abstract

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The plasma motion in pulsar magnetospheres is no longer classical, but quasi-classical, following stochastic trajectories, when random curvature radiation of high energetic gamma-ray photons takes place. This implies an extension to the relativistic kinetic theory of plasmas. But with high energies involved other quantum radiative processes become important, in the context of vacuum (quantum) electrodynamics. The consequences for pulsar radiation mechanisms will be outlined.

Type
Part 6. Emission and Plasma Theory
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2000

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